Loving The Summer
by ClaireBear1982
Summary: Sirius spends some of his summer with James, at the Potter Manor. He learns that a mother's love can exist after all.


A/N: QLFC. Round thirteen. Captain of the Wimbourne Wasps. Headcannon/prompt taken from a post found on Facebook.

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"Sirius? Sirius? Are you up here?"

James came rushing into the boys' dormitory like a bat out of hell.

"What's the matter?" asked Sirius. He was alarmed at first, but when he saw the smile on his best friend's face, he knew that whatever it was, it wasn't bad news.

Grinning, James handed Sirius the letter he'd been holding. Sirius took it and read it. As he did, a huge grin crept across his face.

James had written home to ask his parents if his best friend could come and stay at the Potter Manor over the summer.

"Mate, this is going to be the best summer ever!" said James in excitement. He already had so much planned for the both of them to do over the holidays.

Finally the holidays arrived, and with them, absolutely perfect weather. James and Sirius spent most of their time out of doors flying on James' dad's old Shooting Star broomsticks. They had races, and practiced throwing a Quaffle to each other. They both had intentions of trying out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. James wanted to try out for Chaser. Sirius had aspirations of being a Beater, with the possibility of going professional later on.

James' dad had Transfigured a tree branch into a Beater's bat, and a bunch of rocks into balls. James would then stand below Sirius and throw the balls as hard as he could at Sirius. One day, James had decided - in his infinite wisdom - to throw the balls from up in the air. One such ball came rocketing towards James, and if he hadn't performed a sloppy, Sloth Grip roll, he would have been completely knocked off his broom.

"Oh bloody hell, mate, are you okay?" asked a pale and shaken Sirius. "I thought you were going to fall off for a moment."

James grinned at his best mate.

"Pretty nifty eh?"

"What's that move called?"

Sirius turned pink with embarrassment as James stared at him incredulously. This action caused Sirius to mutter something under his breath, before turning his broom around and flying back towards the ground.

"Wait, where are you going?"

James hurtled after Sirius and dismounted in front of his best mate.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you, mate. I thought being a Quidditch fan, you'd know all the moves."

"I thought I did too, but apparently not," said Sirius sighing. Right now he felt a right dummy. How was it that James could know more about Quidditch moves than he did?

Noting Sirius' confusion, James groped around for another subject.

"I wonder what Remus and Peter are up to?" said James brightly "Shall we go and owl them, and see if they can join us?"

This seemed to cheer Sirius up.

It was coming up to Sirius' last week at the Potter Manor. The weather had turned foul, and it was pouring with rain. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

Both boys were bored, and were starting to get on each others nerves. Eventually Mrs Potter suggested they take a break from each other. James, scowling, headed for his bedroom. Sirius headed to the small library in the East wing.

Mrs Potter quietly followed Sirius into the library.

"Sirius?" said Mrs Potter quietly, making the boy jump a mile high. He swung around to face her.

"Ma'am?" said Sirius, gripping his chest, trying to get his heartbeats back to a regular pattern.

"I was going to ask if you'd like me to light you a fire. It can often be drafty in here, even in the summer."

"Please don't go to any trouble, Ma'am."

"Sirius, how many times must I ask you to call me Aunt Dorea?" said Mrs Potter, laughing. He was such a sweet boy, but there was something so stiff about him calling her 'Ma'am'.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Dorea - force of habit," said Sirius, his head drooping towards the floor.

Dorea Potter sighed. She knew what it was like to belong to the Black family. All the children had it drummed into them that they were to be seen and not heard. Preferably not seen and not heard. Few families were the exception to the rule. Sighing again, she turned and left Sirius in peace.

Sirius looked at the bookshelves, hoping to maybe find something good to read. On the top shelf he discovered a copy of 'Quidditch Through The Ages.' The shelf was a little too high for him to reach properly. Instead of dragging the small set of steps over, he over-reached, over-balanced and fell sideways into a Chinese vase on a plinth next to the shelves. Sirius tried to stop the vase from falling on to the floor by catching it as he fell, but it was no good. It crashed onto the hardwood flooring and shattered.

A pain shot through his hand. He looked down and saw blood. He'd hit the floor a second after the vase had, and because he'd put his hands out to break his fall, his right hand was cut by a piece of the delicate porcelain.

Sirius scrambled to his feet just as Mrs Potter entered the library. Seeing her, he tucked his injured hand away behind his back and looked at the floor, bracing himself for an onslaught of verbal abuse. Or worse: physical abuse.

Mrs Potter, noting the boy's defensive stance, felt her heart break for the boy before her. Merlin only knew what he put up with at home. Gently, she reached for him. As she did so, Sirius flinched.

"Sirius, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, sweetheart. Can I see your hand?" said Mrs Potter as softly and as lovingly as she could muster without breaking down in tears. "Please, Sirius, you have no cause to worry. Accidents happen."

Sirius looked up, shock plainly written all over his face. Slowly, he withdrew his right hand. Mrs Potter gently took the boy's hand in her own, all the while reassuring him that accidents sometimes did happen.

"That's not so bad, love. Come on, let's get you into the kitchen and get you all patched up."

Sirius scarcely believed he wasn't going to be punished. Once in the kitchen, Mrs Potter washed the wound and healed it with her wand.

"There we are, love; all new again," said Mrs Potter with a gentle smile. Sirius wished he could stay here forever.

"Thank you, Aunt Dorea. I'm ever so sorry about that vase," said Sirius, dropping his head again.

Gentle fingers lifted his chin. "Be of no mind, child. As I told you, accidents will happen. As it so happens, I never really did like that vase much anyway, so you did me a favour," said Mrs Potter, winking at the boy. This caused Sirius to laugh loudly.

Sirius awkwardly hugged Mrs Potter before scampering off. _All that boy needs is some proper love and affection. Look at the way he flinched away,_ thought Dorea sadly. She resolved to give him an extra mothering before he returned to his own.

At dinner that evening, Mr Potter asked everyone how their day had been. Both James and Sirius gave a non-committal grunt, which caused Charlus Potter to roll his eyes and grin at his wife.

"You'll have to excuse the boys; they've had a bit of a falling out," said Dorea with a grin at her husband.

"I have to ask, dear, but what happened in the small library? That antique Chinese vase is missing."

Immediately, Sirius looked away.

"Oh you know our boys, always getting themselves into odd trouble," said Dorea lightly. She wasn't going to make a huge deal of the thing. The look she gave her husband told him to do the same.

Sirius looked up and smiled at his Aunt. He'd liked the sound of 'our boys'. Oh how he wished he could stay here forever. The smile stayed on Sirius' face for the rest of the night.

'Our boys.'


End file.
